The nature of life is to grow. We all want more happiness, more love, more knowledge, and more power to achieve bigger and bigger goals and reach fulfillment. But consider how most of us go about trying to achieve these things. We look to the outside, to the surface level of life, in an effort to control the ever-changing reality and circumstances we encounter. We’re tossed around from side to side, much like trying to navigate turbulent waters in a small rowboat. As we grasp at anything that appears to be stable, the next wave knocks us untethered from our perch of false security.
For most, this is all we typically experience in life – the surface level. But much like the vast and expansive ocean, there’s a deeper, more profound reality inside of each of us. That is the reality of our mind, our intellect, our ego, and our true self. For us to achieve the fulfillment that we seek, rather than being caught up in the tumultuous existence on the surface level of daily living we need to experience our deeper inner nature. Our outer achievements happen when we have purposeful action – and our action is only effective when it’s well-thought-out and properly planned. Without clarity our efforts are fraught with difficulties, we expend a lot of energy without desirable results and that just becomes even more exhausting. It is from the direct experience of our inner self – much like the depths of the ocean – that silence, creativity, and clarity come. When we’ve gone beyond every expression on the surface, we experience pure unbounded Being – pure consciousness. Silence and quiet within our consciousness.
Consider our thoughts, dreams, and feelings to be like pictures or movies projected on the screen of our consciousness. A drowsy or dull awareness is like a damaged or unpolished screen. No matter how much one tries to project a nice picture on a distorted screen, the full value of the picture can never be appreciated. But the mind that is rested and clear produces the most beautiful of images. Our screens of awareness have endured all sorts of treatment – some are pure, clean, and clear, others have some distortions and stains, or broken pieces here and there. The point is if we want our viewing experience of “life” to be clear and fulfilling, the screen on which it plays has to be as perfect as possible. Consciousness is the ultimate screen.
The role of consciousness is interesting. Without consciousness, without awareness, we’d have no thoughts, no hopes, no plans. Consciousness is not some screen sitting in the background with no real function. It is an active screen, one that itself generates pictures and movies. Everything that we dream about, plan, and desire emanates from our consciousness and is an expression of our consciousness. Obviously, then, the question becomes: How can we upgrade our broken, fuzzy, equipment to a screen that gives a high definition, pleasant, understandable movie?
When we go back to the analogy of our small rowboat trying to navigate turbulent waters in life – the wider, broader, and deeper our consciousness, the greater our ability to comprehend, foresee, and purposefully guide the boat of our life towards greater happiness, achievement, and fulfillment. This is how we see our consciousness develop and our awareness broadens. It all begins by going back to the experience of the Self through a simple, natural technique that takes us from the surface of the ocean to the depths of the ocean, and then to the deepest value of the ocean. There is a technique – Transcendental Meditation —which allows us to dive deep, bringing us to experience that one quiet, silent, unshaken, undisturbed Self. It’s from there that you’ll enjoy the most beautiful projection of life on your screen of consciousness.
Text by Dr Tony Nader
Tony Nader, MD, PhD is a medical doctor and best selling author of the book, One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness. He trained at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD in neuroscience) and is the head of the Transcendental Meditation organizations globally. Dr. Nader is internationally recognized as an expert in the science of consciousness and human development. His training includes internal medicine, psychiatry, and neurology.
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